pietà

pietà

a ko.incidental walk through omonoia, the central square of athens,
four days before the national parliament elections of 2007:

a girl lying (because of drugs?) on the ground
a friend (?) tries to help...

from the megaphones we hear a part of the elections campaign of the communist party of greece, with popular, protest songs from the sixties, of mikis theodorakis...

the shot is taken (like always without purpose or plan) on september 12, 2007 at 2:42 p.m. with a normal digital video apparatus

without tripod
without camera moves
without zooming
without special lighting
without extra microphone
without effects

the sound and the length of the shooting are the original
there are no cuts between the scene

An unsophisticated walk through the city of Athens just a few days before the parliamentary elections of 2007. A girl lying on the ground during the election campaign of the communist party - the struggle for power next to individualist escapist reverie.

[open society archives at central european university budapest 2010]

...joined Konstantinos Goutos´ film “Pietà” in underlying exactly the schizophrenic gap between the political ideals of a few and reality for the most. As a flanêur, Goutos shot the scene without purpose nor plan, he tells us only when and where it took place. With our necessity to rebuild narratives, we presume that, meanwhile his accidental walk through the city of Athens just a few days before the parliament elections of 2007, he witnessed a girl lying on the ground – maybe because of drugs – and a friend possibly trying to help. On the background we hear a part of the elections campaign of the communist party in Greece, with popular, protest songs from the sixties, of Mikis Theodorakis… It unpretentiously shows the separation and incommunicability of worlds; how the blind struggle for power runs side by side with individualist escapist reverie.